VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or St. Petersburg, Florida?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’s own page.

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Santa Marta 70, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: Santa Marta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Marta and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
Best match
50match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaSt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaSt. Petersburg, Florida
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation8 m134 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population505,915258,308
People per km²1,723725
Museums within 10 km313
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Marta or St. Petersburg, Florida somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.